stories and lessons from painting outdoors

why we paint what we paint

I was talking with fellow McRae art studio artist, Matthew Cornell about the nature of what we paint. We talked about why we make the choices we do. That’s nearly impossible to answer on behalf of other artists but I do have some theories. Art does one of several things; informs, documents, challenges or confronts, narrates and, finally, decorates. The latter is done really as a commercial enterprise so money would be the real motive. The art that challenges is generally considered unpopular to all but a handful of people because it goes against the norm. What we find challenging one year is not so the next. For example, the Impressionist movement was considered very controversial in it’s day, now Monet paintings hang in most halls and bathrooms around the country. The new controversial stuff is, well, controversial, and hard to like but maybe in 50 or 100 years it will be considered the norm and maybe people will have piles of salt with burned plastic babies in their bathrooms.

I’m more of a documentor, a landscape artist and painter of stuff; boats (above), interiors and the like. The still life might fall in the realm of the decorative, depending on how it’s done but there are a few artists whose work transcends that genre, Daniel Sprick is one. Winslow Homer, Sargent and Joaquin Sorolla fall into a more narrative/documentative category with work that tells a story or explains the everyday goings on at the time. The ideal is to create work that is both true to yourself and sellable but the two don’t always go together. The lesson usually is paint what you love unless of course you really need to make a buck.

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3 Responses

I like your theories. I suppose all try to capture some sort of beauty or truth no matter what angle art comes from. I think a lot seems to come from your sub-conscience or overall experience from life + environment.
I wish I knew exactly why I’m feeling inspired to paint large vegetables and squirrel portraits but hey, I guess that’s the liberty afforded to hobbyists and not professional artists since I don’t have to worry about selling them. Paint on!

Hi, Larry.
I guess we all sometimes catch ourselves wondering what will sell. (If I could figure that out I could sure as heck make a few millions by selling it to all the “starving” artists out there.) Whenever that happens I wait until my brain numbs (doesn’t take long) and go back to painting what I love –natural areas and wild things. It makes me happy and occasionally makes someone else happy too, which makes me happier and buys more paint.

Have been out of the country and away from my computer so I had to do a little catching up on the posts. Great way to spend a morning. When I got to the August 13th post, I remembered an earlier post…one which got me doing little quick sketches daily that I credit with improving my compositions. Went back and back until Jan 6 and 15th (your 100th post)! Great to see what you did with the sketches of different compositions.
Of course I had to stop and reread many of your earlier posts along the way, plus lots of the comments. Yeah, it’s a great way to procrastinate, but so much fun and truly instructional.
So, thanks again, Larry, for the blog. And may the good folks with deep pockets out there purchase whatever it is that each of us enjoys painting!

Welcome back John! Thanks for being one of the few who actually read this stuff, it justifies the work. And I’m glad you are getting something out of it. Though I couldn’t imagine doing it twice a week like Robert Genn, it is fun.